


Castles in the Sand

by Shocotate



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Gluttony eats people, Hurt/Comfort, Photography, Pre-Canon, Sibling Bonding, Slice of Life, Xerxes | Cselkcess, only rated T because, you know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:28:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26586643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shocotate/pseuds/Shocotate
Summary: Gluttony tried to imagine Father in a place like this. He glanced over the broken rocks and mostly endless sand, not smelling anything like their Father at all. He must have been lonely back then.Lust and Gluttony visit Xerxes. It’s something important for Father, because Lust said so, but it seems like something else is worrying her too.
Relationships: Gluttony & Lust (Fullmetal Alchemist)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	Castles in the Sand

**Author's Note:**

> I’m finally back. Hopefully I’ll get some more fics out soon. Art by Burebo1, he’s awesome! Thanks to my beta-reader Violetlight, too :)

Gluttony didn’t understand. This sand looked just like the rest, even though he’d brought it over here, but it wouldn’t stay. No matter how much he scooped it together, it just poured and flattened and ruined his sandcastle. Envy told him he was making them wrong once, but that made no sense to him. Father knew everything, he knew what castles were and weren’t. If Father said home was a castle, then it was.

The sun shone down from the clear blue sky, while the warm wind made him wince and rub his eyes, and scattered his sand pile even more. No water, and no big leaves to hide under, not like before. The tall stone helped a little, though, and Gluttony shuffled across and hid in its shadow properly.

He sniffed. Maybe he could try later, when the big sand wouldn’t burn his fingers.

Lust stood fussing around that strange box on long thin legs. She set it down in the middle of what might have been a room once, and strode up to the huge wall that was left, touching it gently and whispering to herself. She strolled along easily with her shoes clicking on the rocks, no more sand to sink in, for now.

Her coat hung over one of the shorter thin rocks, but still taller than her. She tucked the thing back under her arm, squinted at the rock and sliced it shorter with a swipe. A bunch of the way longer ones made a pile in between the wall and the box, cut through earlier. Lust stepped around it, leaving the chunk perched in the same place. Gluttony wondered if Lust liked it where it was, after all.

Reaching the box again, she bent forward and hid underneath her coat, picked up the whole thing and took a few steps back before bending again.

“Gluttony, you’re in the way.” Lust called when she popped her head up over the box. The thick coat slid down onto her shoulders, looking more like a cape.

“Oh. Sorry, Lust.” Gluttony said. He spread the borrowed sand out flat and crawled further away from the big wall. Lots of strange marks were carved in it, a big circle with lots of dots, and in the corner, way, way up, what looked like a lion. Gluttony’s belly rumbled to itself. He’d never tried a real lion before. Did they live out here?

“You don’t have to go that far. Yes that’s perfect, but remember that if there are any humans around you must call me ‘Nyx’,” she reminded him. Lust chose so many strange names for herself when they were outside, but obviously Lust suited better than all of them. Gluttony kinda wished the humans could see that. “Do you smell anything?”

“No, no one’s nearby.”

“Good.” Lust said. She knelt down, wiping something that looked like a mirror on top of a frame before hiding it in another wood box on the floor. “Here, you can help, actually.” Her fingers flicked to the long stones lying down in the pile. Those must have been ‘in the way’, too. “Think you can move some of these columns away?”

“Yup!” Gluttony called back, pushing up. So that’s what they were called. They looked familiar, but he couldn’t remember where from exactly.

Walking past the weird box, Gluttony picked up the first column,

“Huh?” and found a yellow lizard squished flat under it. It could have been sunbathing there before Lust cut the rock down, he supposed. No point it wasting it. He held the lizard between his teeth and lifted the column over his shoulder. Its scaly tail slapped his chin as he waddled out of the way, setting each column far off in the sand, one by one, not letting them drag and mark the floor.

By the time Gluttony got back from moving the last one Lust had stood back up, sliding the shiny square into the flat box again (or was it a different one?), and then the main box. She pulled a cap from the front of it before stepping away, waiting and watching though everything seemed the same to him.

Gluttony plopped down in another tiny shadow, batting any dust off his hands. He waited to see if Lust had anything else she wanted moving, but since she didn’t he turned his attention back to the little lizard. Lots of its blood had already been crushed out of it by the column, but a few droplets dribbled out as he bit down, and Gluttony licked it up. Good enough for now, until Lust could fill her wineskin up. She mentioned something about a water spot for visitors, but it had dried up in the heat with no one to refill it. He wasn’t sure if Lust wanted more or less people visiting the ruins, really.

“Isn’t it exquisite?” Lust said, turning back to the wall, “I can’t believe we’re actually here…”

“Mm.” Gluttony hummed between mouthfuls.

“Oh, do you think Father once stood here, _right here_ , in this spot? I can’t imagine…if only…” She stared and sighed, seeing something in the dusty rocks he couldn’t. He mustn’t have been meant to understand.

Lust put the cap back on the box and set to work on some other thing he didn’t understand, either. A little while later she took out three small jars from her suitcase, some liquid swirling inside them.

“What’re those?”

“Sodium thiosulfate, gold chloride, and distilled water. I know they all look like water, but you mustn’t drink them.” Lust said, pouring one of the glasses out over the plate. His sister probably knew he didn’t get it, but told him anyway. He smiled to himself.

“Oh. Ok.” Gluttony covered his mouth as he swallowed the rest of the lizard.

“It’s perfect... much too good for human eyes,” he heard her mumble between her fidgeting, glancing between the wall and the plate again and again. She hid it away in the box and turned to him fully, her sharp, pretty eyes meeting his, suddenly very serious. “Gluttony, Father wants it ‘swallowing’, ok?”

Gluttony nodded. Well, he could understand _that_ much, and more things to eat always sounded good.

* * *

Gluttony watched only his set of footprints lead back to the ruins. The whole thing looked so small now. Though, they _were_ a _bit_ smaller than earlier, weren’t they? Thanks to him and Lust. She shifted further back on his shoulder, her heels tapping over him.

A long, long shadow covered them both, the sun sinking behind a hill, it washing over them like water. Some real water would be nice, though. In the shade, the gold sand seemed a dirty orange, and dulled ‘til it almost looked like soil, but even he knew nothing would grow in it. The trees at the ruins were all bent and twisted, same as the ones near the little pool back at the resting spot.

“Think we’ll see any hand trees on the way back, Lust?” he asked, tilting his head up as much as he could.

“Hand trees?” Lust blinked, hugging her suitcase tight as she leant forward, her coat trapped under it.

“Yeah, from the island, remember? The sand there had them, but not here,” he said, thinking back to that day, his unfinished sandcastle and Envy splashing them both. Lust remembered that too, didn’t she, and Lust would understand him.

“Oh, _palm_ trees. You’re right, though. They can’t grow here anymore, if they ever did. Father’s power took everything worthwhile from this place.”

“When?”

“Oh, hundreds of years ago, before you were born, and me, and Pride.”

“And Envy?”

“Yes,” Lust scrunched her nose a little, “even him. It was before _all_ of us, when it was just Father.”

“Wow.” He must have been lonely. Gluttony tried to imagine their Father in a place like this. He glanced over the broken rocks and mostly endless sand. Well, his chair back home was made of stones, so he might find a rock like that here. Still, Gluttony sniffed, not smelling anything like Father at all, only sand, more of those lizards hiding under it, rocks, all the strange things in that little box, and Lust.

“The humans back then were just as hopeless as today. Poor things,” she cooed, brightening in the cooled air and smiling down at him, “and just think, now you have a fragment of those grand machinations in your stomach, instead. No pesky humans can come and uncover Father’s secrets now, can they?”

Gluttony nodded along like he understood, only the second half making much sense to him.

“Oooh, maybe they’d see if I ate them?”

“Ha, that would be _one_ way to go about it. Hungry?”

“Yeah...” he admitted, following his nose, plodding along in the sand and hoping he could sneak up on any of those lizards before they scampered away, but something else reached him on top of it. He sniffed for it again.

“We’ll find you something soon, I promise. Can’t have you sleepwalking in a place like this, I’d never-- hm?” she noticed his sniffing, switching her crossed legs, “What is it?”

“I smell smoke,” he _saw_ it, too, stretching from behind a nearby hill like a piece of grey string.

“Ah, very good, Gluttony. Looks like we have company after all.”

“Ooh, can I--!”

“ _Shh_ ,” her hand rested on his head as she purred and slid down from his shoulder.

“I mean - Can I eat them, Nyx?” Gluttony whispered instead.

“Most likely, but not yet,” she said, slipping an arm into her coat and smoothing it down, “let’s see who it is.”

Her heels sunk deep in the sand, almost covering her shoes, and Gluttony followed close behind while she half stomped and half wobbled her way up the slope. She overbalanced near the top, catching herself with only one hand, gripping the suitcase tight to her. He asked if he could carry it for her, but she said she needed it for appearances, or something.

Gluttony lifted his head over the top, nose resting on the ground. Hopefully no one would notice them. His blank eyes followed the smoke path down to the weak campfire, and the lone human beside it. The man was setting up a strange, droopy house.

“On second thought, you stay here,” Lust whispered, pushing up off his head without him, “I’ll take care of this one.”

Gluttony watched her wander down and call to the man, waving with her spare hand, though he couldn’t hear what the human said back.

It looked like they talked for a bit. It probably wouldn’t be anything important, and if it was Lust would tell him later. The man gave her something and she took a tiny sip. As the sun set fully Gluttony rubbed his eyes, and when he opened them again he saw her faking a yawn. She might go in the little house with the human, he thought. It might fit them both, but not him.

Lust let him take her coat, and he took his own off, too. The man got very close to her, wrapped her up with his arms like she let all the others do. Gluttony just sat and waited. Lust said not to bug her when she was with humans, anyway.

But she didn’t go inside.

She gasped suddenly, shaking her head and shoving him away. The man gasped as well. Her fingers were stuck in him; they came out red on top, just like the bottoms of her gloves. Gluttony watched him stumble backwards, only able to pat at his front and stain his own shaking hands before he sank down in the sand.

“Huh,” Gluttony blinked, chewing at his finger. Did he get to eat this one early, then? He shimmied over the sandbank and slipped down to her.

Lust was still panting when he reached her, freezing when she finally noticed him. Her fingers still dripped. The campfire crackled and threw her shadow around, making it look like her hands were shaking.

“Not inside, Lust? Why?” he asked, head tilted. Her nails slowly, slowly shrank down, and she stood up straighter.

“Oh, there’s no need for that,” she said, sighing one last time and breathing through her nose instead. “No one will ever see in a place like this, or ever know. Poor boy was never here.” Lust cleaned her fingers on the man’s coat, and threw it down beside him, all without her usual smile. “Told you I’d get you something,” his sister reached down and plucked the human’s wineskin up, sipping at it again, more like a gulp, before draping the strap across him. “Here’s something to wash it down with, too, and don’t forget to wipe your hands and mouth once you’re done.” It looked like she tried to smile, almost, if he squinted.

This was all the human’s fault!

Gluttony chomped down on the man’s body as hard as he could, and the sand drank some of _his_ blood meant for _him_ and he gulped that down, as well. He tore big bites out of him, not Swallowed like their Father’s ruins, all nice and complete, or in pieces as big as his Eye could manage. He didn’t deserve that for making Lust sad.

Still tasted good, though.

* * *

The sky was different here. So many more stars glittered in the dark, way more than Lust had ever told him the names of. The air tasted cool and clean, no grey dust like that smoky town on the way, or on the train. Gluttony didn’t understand it, but breathed in and enjoyed it all the same.

For a second he wondered why he’d woken up, but his belly reminded him, just a little growl. He turned his head and found the human’s leftover arm sat on a scrap of cloth next to him. Gluttony grinned, extra proud of himself for saving it. Maybe he wouldn’t have woken up if he’d eaten every piece, but it was fine either way. He could go back to sleep right after.

Yawning, Gluttony covered his mouth with one hand and grabbed his _midnight snack_ with the other, chomping down on one of the fingers. He smiled to himself at the _snap_ it made. The sound echoed on, and on, and on. He wondered if anyone else could hear it, even if he couldn’t see or smell them. Maybe the sound went even further than that.

He shook his head, tearing off another finger. No one was out here, Lust said, so it was ok.

Only the wind blew back, anyway. The flap on the little house fluttered. The fire crackled quietly to itself, a tiny orange glow left.

The stars shone out from the blackness like holes in the sky, like the so many pinpricks Lust put in the humans before they fell down, or like cheese.

While Gluttony gnawed at the wrist, his blank, white eyes traced a line across the dots of stars, until they reached the moon.

“Pretty...” He remembered Envy sometimes telling him it was made of cheese. But then why hadn’t anyone tried eating it, he wondered. That lion on Father’s wall had been eating the sun, but that was just a drawing. Though, maybe eating the moon would be easier, if it really was cheese.

He thought better of it. It would be too dark at night without it, and cheese didn’t taste even half as good as people. He chewed on a bit of marrow, watching the moon and its pale light wash over everything. It didn’t hurt to look at like the sun, either.

“Come and see this, Lust!” Gluttony said too loudly, that echoing, too, but she didn’t answer. He sat up, swallowing the last of the human’s arm, “Lust?” he whispered afterwards, not wanting to wake her up if she was sleeping, but then why was the ‘door’ open?

Gluttony poked his head in; Lust’s suitcase and the little brown box inside it were open, but nothing else, no Lust at all.

“Sleepwalking?” Did she do that as well? He couldn’t remember if she’d eaten anything before bed, or if the human had brought any food with him.

As Gluttony crawled backwards, his hand landed on her coat. He picked it up between two fingers. She’d get cold without it, Gluttony thought. He half followed his nose and her deep footprints, up over the hill. The water in the human’s wineskin splashed around inside while he padded, still over his shoulder from earlier, but if she was far away maybe she’d be thirsty. Maybe she’d found another human for him.

With the clear sky and the stars still twinkling in it, Gluttony found her sat all alone on a rock. Better than sitting and getting sand on her, he bet.

[](https://64.media.tumblr.com/384aa6fefa710c14ad0cc909fa5568e9/0cec39f8a4972104-23/s2048x3072/a7ef44dce4af172151f3c0fe71f28705165c323f.png)Lust didn’t see him, though. She barely moved, watching something cupped in her hands, making no sound when the wind brushed past her. She looked and looked, bringing the something close to her face and squinting before lowering it back down, and a little frosty cloud came out her mouth. Her shoulders shook a little.

She _was_ cold!

Remembering the coat, Gluttony flapped his arms and called to her, waving to her and waving it at the same time.

“Lust! You forgot this.”

“Oh,” She turned her head to him, as if only just realising he was there, her eyes bright but tired in the darkness, “Can’t sleep, either, or did I wake you up?”

“Not really,” he said, plonking in the sand with a thump. He lifted the coat up for her, but she wouldn’t take it from him, focused on her hands again.

“Eh, what’s wrong, Lust?”

“Nothing.” Lust sighed, still staring down at the small thing. It didn’t look like anything to Gluttony, even in the moonlight. It shone like a mirror, black at the front and gold at the back. “Hey, take a look at this,” she turned further to him, lifted her hand and let him see. “Look, but don’t touch it, ok?”

The shiny plate flickered between black and white and white and black as she tilted it. Gluttony blinked his little eyes, trying to find what was so interesting about it.

“What’s it for?” he asked. She had to know, right?

“It’s for Pride,” she said, before realising that wasn’t what he meant, “Oh. It’s a photograph, like a tiny painting.” Her other hand played with a strand of her hair, “before I left Central, Pride and I made a promise to each other; he cannot see _all of this_ for himself, not yet. There’s this, but I can’t exactly try again...”

She held it steady as he leant close to it, squinting. The dark parts at the top brightened, turning a clear white. It almost looked like the sky. Gluttony focused as much as he could, hoping to really, really _try_ and see whatever Lust saw in it.

“What am I doing?” She muttered under her breath, “It’s difficult to explain, I know you probably don’t understand any of this.”

The grey lines changed, too, all curving on the lighter shade in the background, and at the front lots of little thin-- oh!

“Oh, it’s Father’s circle.” Gluttony pointed at the corner, careful not to touch it. “See, there’s the lion!”

“Yes, yes it is.” Lust gasped, her hair flopping forward as she nodded.

“I can see the whole thing…it’s still there?” Gluttony looked down and patted his stomach, wondering if the pieces had escaped somehow. Father said nothing could escape there, that’s why getting in his Eye’s way was dangerous.

“No, only on this.”

“Wow.” No wonder she had spent so long with it earlier, “If it’s only this, then keep it safe, Lust!” He gently pushed her hand away, close to her chest. “Big Brother Pride will love it, Lust. You’ll--”

“Truly?” She said, softer, cutting him off. Lust always knew all the answers, but now she chose to ask _him._ Gluttony only grinned and clapped his hands.

“Yep!” How could he say anything else? The pretty square was amazing, just like being there, but so small. How could their brother not want something like that, all for him?

Lust’s eyes glittered in the moonlight, watching him for a long while.

“We can only hope.” She managed to smile. He handed her the wineskin in case she was thirsty. “Thank you,” she said, though he wasn’t sure which thing she was thanking him for. “Oh, Gluttony, you’ve got sand all over your back. Let me -- there you go.” She patted the sand off the spot he could never reach, the wineskin on her lap.

They sat with the wind whistling again. The sand was cooler now, so it wasn’t so bad. He scooped more sand into a pile, but it still collapsed. Oh.

“Ah. Here,” Lust cooed, pouring a splash of the water out onto the ground, and the damp sand stayed together! Gluttony only flashed her another grin and began his sandcastle properly.

“Look, Lust! Columns, like back home!” Gluttony remembered the columns now, along the stairs back home. That must be why it was a castle, it must have reminded Father of this place.

“I knew you’d understand it eventually. Father will be very pleased. Cleaning up the ruins is one thing, and you can have the tent and the rest of the camp for breakfast.”

“Even the fire, when it goes out?” Gluttony asked, shivering at the idea. He stuck his tongue out, remembering that horrible bitty stuff fire made, like that dust his blood turned into when he got hurt. It didn’t fully go away like that stuff, though.

Lust laughed quietly, her hair bouncing,

“No, no, ash is ash. That will get lost in the sand before anyone notices it. It’s tomorrow’s problem, for now. We’ll head back to the tent in a bit.”

“Can I finish my sandcastle?”

His sister just leant over his shoulders on her elbows, nodding, while out the corner of his eye the photograph shone in the starlight. She watched him make his castle in the sand and its columns, just like back at Xerxes, and back home.

Gluttony might not understand much, and he still didn’t understand _why_ , really, but at least he’d managed to cheer her up! He could do that at least, no matter what.


End file.
